Introduction

This year it will be the fourth attempt for the famous composer Ralph Siegel playing an important role in the San Marinese ESC contribution. Three times he wrote songs for Valentina Monetta, but only reached the Grand Final one time last year. Obviously Ralph Siegel is a driving force for San Marino in the ESC. The San Marinese broadcaster SMRTV has chosen him again as a composer. And yes, there will be another performer than Valentina Monetta.
It’s the duo Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola singing “Chain of Lights” in Vienna. These guys will be the youngest singers in this year’s ESC, Anita is 14 years old, and she is turning 15 in April, Michele is already 15 years old so everything is fine with the EBU rules which say that the singers should not be younger than 15 years.

Anita Simoncini was born in Montegiardino, San Marino in 1999. Early she has been taking singing lessons, Anita loves listening to Coldplay, Linkin Park, Radiohead and Etta James. She participated at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest with the group The Peppermints and reached the 15th place with “Breaking My Heart”.
Michele Perniola was born in Palagiano, Apulia, Italy in 1998. In the age of nine he took singing lessons and learned classic ballet. He has also taking part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Michele has been chosen to represent San Marino in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 with the song “O-o-O Sole Intorno A Me” which made a 10th place. This was also his first single. Michele has won the sixth edition of the Italian TV series “Ti Lascio Una Canzone”. He also read the San Marinese points as jury representative last year.

The song “Chain Of Lights” is the first duet from San Marino in the ESC and this will also be the youngest duo in the ESC history. The sympathetic singers will definitely get a lot of attention regarding to the age fact. There is a typical “Ralph Siegel” composition with a dominating chorus and a combination of two music styles in one song. The video clip shows nice images of San Marino with an orchestral instrumentation. Unfortunately, the song has nothing Italian or San Marinese at all. Good luck to the team.

History

Debut: 2008
Participations: 6
Finals: 1
Top 10: 0
Chance for Top 10: 0%

San Marino has joined the Eurovision Song Contest in the year 2008. With the song “Complice” by Miodio, San Marino made a wonderful debut. Unfortunately, San Marino came last – a truly undeserved 19th place in the Semi Final. Only once San Marino made it into the Grand Final with Ralph Siegel’s composition “Maybe”, sung by Valentina Monetta last year in Copenhagen.

This year it’s going to be the seventh time in the ESC for the small country. Of course such a small country with only 32.000 inhabitants the local music scene is not very big. Therefore foreign composers have been invited such as Ralph Siegel, who has composed three songs for San Marino before and so it will be this year. In recent years also other micro states tried their luck in the ESC like Andorra and Monaco, with a little success only. Maybe these country’s lobby is too small.

It was always said if San Marino is going to win someday the contest will be held in the neighbour city Bologna, Italy.